Fernandes fights for time in deep Union midfield

The Union's enviable depth at midfield grew even stronger this week.

Brian Carroll, the team captain who started every game last season, is over the illness that forced him to miss the opener. And the Union signed veteran Brazilian midfielder Fred on Thursday. Both will be available Saturday for the game against the Crew in Columbus.

With midfield newcomers Maurice Edu and Vincent Nogueira off to strong starts, Union manager John Hackworth will have plenty of options in assembling his lineup.

And then there's Leo Fernandes, who is perhaps the most intriguing.

The 22-year-old midfielder was not even sure he would be drafted. So when the Union called last year to tell him they had taken him with their final pick, he did not give them a chance to change their minds.

Fernandes left his Long Island home the next day and caught a 5 a.m. train at Penn Station. A car waited at 30th Street Station and whisked him to PPL Park in Chester for his first training session.

A little more than a year later, another surprise was in store. Fernandes walked into the locker room last Saturday about 90 minutes before the Union's home opener against New England. An assistant coach immediately pulled him aside.

Carroll was out sick. Fernandes, who had played just seven games last season, was in the starting lineup.

The 62d overall pick in the MLS supplemental draft - just 11 players were taken after him - and the first ever from Stony Brook did more than just fit in as the club's primary playmaker. He made a case for a more significant role in an ever-deepening Union midfield.

Fernandes easily evaded his New England defender with a nifty move and sent a perfect cross to Sebastien Le Toux for the game's only goal 31 minutes into the first half.

"I'm always trying to prove people wrong," Fernandes said. "I feel like when I first got here [people] didn't expect me to do much - just get cut two weeks in. But each day I worked . . . to prove to the coaching staff I belong here."

He has no plans to abandon the habits that got him this far. Fernandes, who was born in Brazil and moved to Long Island when he was 6, was one of the final players to leave the field after training at PPL Park on Thursday.

"I'm a professional," Fernandes said. "So I'm always ready to go no matter what - if I get a week's notice or two hours."

Corner kicks. Fred has 15 goals and 18 assists in 114 MLS career games. Terms of his deal were not disclosed. . . . The lockout of Major League Soccer's referees ended Thursday after they agreed to a five-year contract. Replacements had been used for the first two weekends of MLS games.